Qatar’s Ooredoo, Nvidia, and Nokia unveil multi-billion-dollar AI compute platform—and Southeast Asia is their target

Qatar’s Ooredoo Group, in collaboration with Nvidia and Nokia, has unveiled a multi-billion-dollar investment to construct Indonesia’s inaugural specialized AI compute and neocloud platform, Zankore. The platform aims to accommodate a surge in regional demand for AI infrastructure, leading to an anticipated 1 gigawatt (GW) of AI capacity deployment over the next three years.

Ooredoo Group, a founding shareholder and lead investor with a 49% stake, has pledged $800 million over the next five years to support Zankore's launch and growth. The venture is projected to generate $13 billion in revenue and $9 billion in cumulative EBITDA over five years, with Ooredoo Group's proportional Ebitda contribution estimated at $600 million.

Zankore's neocloud platform will leverage Nvidia’s GPU-as-a-Service model, allowing users to rent high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs) over the internet. This approach reduces the need for costly physical hardware and streamlines AI model training. An orchestration layer will manage GPU capacity distribution among multiple users or clusters, leveraging Nvidia’s technology to optimize power recovery and increase compute power by up to 40%. This improvement will enhance Zankore's capacity to serve customers and generate revenue.

Ooredoo Group CEO Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo emphasized the strategic positioning of the company in the transition from a traditional telco to a leading digital infrastructure provider. The investment reflects Ooredoo's growing commitment to Indonesia's rapidly expanding data center market and Southeast Asia's booming AI compute and cloud industry.

Indonesia's digital economy is expected to surpass $130 billion by 2030, with strong AI adoption momentum and a highly tech-savvy population. The platform aims to capitalize on Southeast Asia's burgeoning AI demand, driven by digital transformation and cloud adoption, while addressing power capacity constraints in key markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.